This week, Health Magazine crowned our very own Tybee Island as the country’s healthiest beach getaway.  Now some of you may have just shot hot coffee out of your nose, but you heard me right. Despite our ever critical eye of our slice of paradise (and the weird beach pigeons), Tybee measures up surprisingly well against the competition.

Tybee’s overall victory was measured by it’s success in a number of criteria.  Health Magazine started with a list of the 50 most popular beach and lake towns in the country (as defined by the total number of vacation days tourists spend there) from AAA. To arrive at their top-10 list, judges rated places in five categories: quality and cleanliness of air, water and sand; range of fitness opportunities; healthfulness of local restaurants; safety measures, including the presence of lifeguards, how close the town is to a major trauma center should an emergency come up and the crime rate; and affordability of accommodations.  (Obviously one of the criteria was not the average health of beachgoers - ha!)

According to a recent Savannah Morning News article on the award, “Tybee scored particularly well as the lowest cost place to stay of all locations and as having the fewest water quality problems…  Tybee also scored well because of the range of outdoor activities on the island and the variety of healthy foods in local restaurants.”

This summer, if you’re feeling pent up, out of shape, or in need of some fresh air, just head to Tybee Island for some low-key, healthy leisure.  You just might want to avoid Memorial Day, Fourth of July and Labor Day weekends, days when a trip to the beach would cause your blood pressure to skyrocket.

This is a great (and amazingly easy) way to participate in the education of our youth.  You can do it in your pajamas if you want to! (All it takes is a computer and a clean record!)

Here’s how it works: Adult e-mentors (you) are paired with a 3rd, 4th or 5th grade student (a pen pal) and introduced online. Over the course of the academic year, you and your pen pal will read five books, exchanging emails along the way to discuss the book.

The program, a pilot for Savannah, fosters reading, writing, and critical thinking skills by connecting engaged mentors with children in the classroom. Pen pals from the Savannah community are an essential part of this initiative and are critical to its success.

So, besides spreading the word about this innovative and exciting program, you can help out by signing up to volunteer for a Savannah student.

Dr. Thomas Lockamy, Superintendent for the SCCPSS recently sent a letter to ask for the community’s help in this effort, and below is an excerpt from his request, complete with all the instructions you need to sign up and participate.

From Dr. Lockamy:

To make this effort successful we need to recruit 800 pen pals. As role models, pen pals inspire students’ learning, open their eyes to possibilities for achievement, and provide an additional support outlet for them. While the program only takes a few hours a month, we do need a commitment from you to write with your student for the entire school year.

You can be a pen pal without leaving your home or office! Here’s how it works:

1. At the beginning of the school year you’ll be matched with a student and you will exchange “getting to know you” letters via the In2Books website.

2. Your student will select his or her first book, and you’ll be notified by email what book you should read. You can purchase the book or find it at a local library.

3. Next you’ll write an online letter to your student about the book. Pen Pal Place, the In2Books website dedicated to pen pals, will provide you with instruction, tips and examples to get you started.

4. Once the teacher has approved your letter, the student will read it and respond back.

5. The process is then repeated for the next four books.

Registering to be a pen pal is easy! Please be sure to follow these steps carefully to ensure that you are prioritized as a pen pal for a Savannah student.

1. Go to www.sccpss.com and click on the in2books ICON to begin the registration process. Note: for the safety of students you will be required to complete a background check.

2. Be sure to enter Savannah from the dropdown list when asked for your affiliation on the registration page.

3. The next step takes you to the background check page. Make sure you use the following promotion code SAV469 on the background check page.

Please pass this letter along to friends and colleagues you think would be interested and willing to help a student.

Her newest board game design is “Train,” is more of a somber treatise than a traditional game.  Through the course of play, Train leads players on a journey allegorical of Jews being transported to Auschwitz.  By the way the rules are written, however, players often don’t realize the breadth of each decision and the consequence of each move forward until the end.  With the gravity of the topic it touches, Train does more than introduce players to a poignant topic in world history, it redefines the scope of board games in general.

Train debuted at the Games for Change conference in New York City last month.  The board is comprised of three train tracks astride a broken window, representative of Kristallnacht, when the Nazi’s smashed the windows of Jewish homes.  The three train tracks are the point of play, and players are loaded into the trains and then moved to an unknown destination via command cards.

“Some people approach the game and see it for what it is immediately, and their reaction is no less visceral than those who play the game,” explains Brathwaite, a Savannah resident, in a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal. “There are those who play all the way until the end and then realize where the trains were going - and it is such a steep drop. People become nauseated. Their faces flush. People have cried. There is always a one-hour period of discussion after.”

“There is then the second experience,” she continues, “one of watching the game being played. I have watched it dozens of times now, and it still nauseates me when people put the passengers in the cars. I am fascinated when one player figures it out - puts it together - and suddenly stops his or her progression toward the end and instead works diligently to thwart everyone else. This player will often immediately request the rules wondering how he or she can subvert the system to save everyone. The dynamics of the experience are fascinating, moving and emotional for everyone, me included.”

Read the Brenda Brathwaite’s full interview with the Wall Street Journal or watch the interview video.

Still, it’s shocking to see the ripple effect of MJ’s death on social media, the web and our “21st-centurified” life as a whole.   To put the true impact in more tangible terms: Google and Twitter both crashed under the burden of hundreds of millions of web surfing fans of the late pop star.

In the US alone, Google saw 36 of the top 100 searches related to Jackson’s death.  The spike in searches related to Michael Jackson was so big that Google News initially mistook it for an automated attack. As a result, for about 25 minutes, people searching Google News saw a “We’re sorry” page.  Additionally, Google saw one of the largest mobile search spikes ever, with 5 of the top 20 searches about the Moonwalker.

Those same searchers eventually wound up on Twitter to pay their respects.  In the UK it was documented that Twitter had it’s busiest day EVER.  Across the globe, the social media site buckled under an unprecedented spike in Tweets.

“According to analysis tool Twist, 22.6 per cent of the messages posted were about Jackson.  Twitter co-founder Biz Stone said: “We saw an instant doubling of tweets per second the moment the story broke.  “It is the biggest jump in tweets per second since the US presidential election.”"

Rumor has it that AT&T experienced the highest number of text messages ever.  Grief stricken fans have swamped Amazon.com and iTunes to purchase some of the late artist’s hits. According to a Wall Street Journal Article…

“Amazon said sales of Jackson CDs were more than 700 times greater on Thursday than they were the previous day and accounted for 60% of all music sales on the site yesterday. Demand was so great that Amazon ran out of stock within minutes after his death was reported, the company said.  Amazon [is] working with Sony Corp.’s (SNE) music unit to restock supplies as quickly as possible, but shoppers buying Jackson material will now have to wait one to three weeks before it is shipped.

Thirteen of the top 20 selling albums on iTunes Friday were by Jackson, including No. 1 seller “The Essential Michael Jackson”. Some 40 of the top 100 songs on iTunes were Jackson tracks. Meanwhile, Jackson’s videos accounted for 16 of the top 20 sellers in that category.”

Even news media sites felt the strain of Jackobsession.  Major slowdowns began in late afternoon on June 25th for ABC, AOL, LA Times and CBS.  From 6 - 8 pm EDT, those sites were down to nearly 10% availability.  The below chart compares the number of blog posts in 2009 as related to President Barack Obama, the Swine Flu and the King of Pop.  (Note the blue line to the far right of the chart.)

And people are paying tribute to the King of Pop the internet over.  Local band SOAP posted their rendition of “Don’t Stop ‘Till you Get Enough” to honor his life in death.  (Check it out.)  By Friday, Last.FM reported a record 42,000 streams of Michael Jackson songs in two hours.

Simply put, in this day and age of immediacy and excess of access to information, the hype over the death of Michael Jackson has compounded itself.  (And, apparently, the true measure of fame can now be calculated on the number of post-mortem Tweets, Google searches and iTunes downloads.)

More than anything, it’s as if people are using the ways of the web to help them deal with this lingering feeling of unfinished business.  The internet is really the best photo album out there - it reminds us of the trends we mimicked (red leather jacket), of the humanitarian needs that call to us all (We Are the World), and of the man who inspired and shaped the pop artists of today (Kanye West, Usher, Britney Spears, JT, to name a few).  It also helps us remember a legend the glorious and rockin’ way he was… rather than a legacy of bankruptcy, pedophilia, the mysterious dangling baby incident, face masks and plastic surgery gone bad (gawd - that nose!).

We don’t know about you, but the past few days have left us worse for the wear. Maybe because now that he’s gone the world’s reaction has made us realize what I haven’t considered for the past decade: just how big a deal Michael Jackson was, even when he wasn’t.

Is this how people felt when Elvis died?

Hosted by SMF Executive and Artistic Director Rob Gibson, the Savannah Music Festival LIVE radioshow is a weekly public radio show aired on the Georgia Public Broadcasting Radio Network.  It features performances from the last five years of Georgia’s largest musical arts event, including many concerts from the 2009 season.  The show also features special productions about past and present Georgia music luminaries such as Wycliffe Gordon and Johnny Mercer.

When can you hear it?   Tune into the GPB Radio Network on Mondays at 9 pm (or if you happen to be in Athens, listen to WUGA - 91.7 fm on Thursday nights at 8pm). But if once a week just won’t satisfy your SMF cravings, you can stream the concerts anytime through their website.  (Start streaming now.)  Available today are performances by the Prazak Quartet, Punch Brothers with Chris Thile, Mariza Live from the Lucas, and many more.  So listen while your work, drive or clean house.

And, speaking of the Savannah Music Festival, don’t forget to mark dates for the 2010 concert series on your calendar: March 18 - April 3, 2010.  (Season lineup to be announced October 15, 2009.)

Happy listening!

Two neighboring waterways worth knowing more about are the Ogeechee and Canoochee rivers.  One, the Ogeechee, meanders south from Crawfordsville until it meets with the other just north of Interstate 95 at Kings Ferry.  Together, the two rivers cover hundred of miles of rural recreational oppportunities from birding to fishing to paddling.

They are rivers rich with historical knowledge as well as ecological importance.  Their banks were home to countless tribes of Native Americans (hence the Indian names for the rivers) and now host landmarks that include ancient burial grounds and military forts from the Spanish-American, Revolutionary and Civil war eras.  More recent events in history, however, left behind more compromised legacy.

Over the past 70 years, the rivers have been steadily hammered with pollutants from sewage and stormwater runoff from aging or poorly regulated water treatment plants, storm-water systems, agricultural operations and septic tanks.  The Canoochee River has witnessed an excessive nutrient load from an upstream poultry processing plant, resulting in algae blooms that suffocate plant and aquatic life.

One woman, Linda Smith, took up the river’s fight when her beloved river - where she sunbathed on the banks - turned green with pollution.  After trying to get the government and poultry plant upstream to clean up, Smith and her sisters filed a Clean Water Act case to compel the poultry plant to clean up its act. After winning a small settlement, Linda founded Canoochee Riverkeeper, which later became Ogeechee-Canoochee Riverkeeper (OCRK). She continues to be an active advocate for this beautiful river system today - monitoring the rivers and streams for pollution, calling elected officials, and educating school children about the river.

In honor of her fight to protect the river she loves, the Ogeechee-Canoochee Riverkeeper has entered Linda Smith’s name in the Eco Champion contest sponsored by outdoor apparel maker The North Face and textile manufacturer Polartec.  They submitted a photograph of Linda on the banks of the Canoochee River in the 1950’s, before the river was impaired, which is up for vote on Brickfish.

THEY NEED YOUR VOTE! They surpassed hundreds of competitors and are now in third place, only a few hundred votes behind the top two entries.  Your vote - and your promotion of the organization on social media pages like Facebook and Twitter - help can help propel Linda Smith to North Face/Polartec Eco Champion! (Become a friend of the OCRK on Facebook.)

Should they win, the Ogeechee-Canoochee Riverkeeper would benefit from the $15,000 in prize money, no small amount for a non-profit.  Winning a national contest of this prestige would bring significant attention to these two coastal rivers as well as acknowledge the stewardship and dedication of Linda Smith. Visit the contest’s website and cast your vote for Linda and the Ogeechee-Canoochee Riverkeeper (pictured above)!

Help the Ogeechee-Canooche, and vote »

We’ve recently added five new business testimonials, highlighting the great work and entrepreneurial spirit of some of Savannah’s hottest local businesses.

• Lott + Barber - This team of creative architecture professionals has grown to be one of the most respected and recognizable names in the coastal architecture community.  (Not to mention their integral role in supporting both our 2008 and 2009 Innovation Awards!) Read more…

• The Fiduciary Group - More than a company, they are a story of the transformation of a second-generation Savannah based business through innovation, technology and design.  (Now if that doesn’t intrigue you, I don’t know what will.)  Read more…

• Clark Creative - Cari Clark and TCCa go waaaaay back.  Yep, she’s part of the reason that we all have cSpot to look forward to on the last Wednesday of the month.  She’s also the matriarchal force behind Clark Creative, a company with a feminine identity that excels in visual communications.  Read more…

• JodyJazz - Famed instrumental mouthpiece maker Jody Espina came to Savannah by way of the Big Apple.  What’s he think of his decision to set up JodyJazz’s shop in Savannah?  “Savannah was one of the few places in the country that had many of the best things that I liked about New York: walkability, cool food, cool Architecture, cool people,” says Espina.”  Read more…

• Stage Front Presentation Systems - These guys are high on our list to thank for killer A/V and production of last year’s Innovation Awards.  As most of you know, Stage Front Presentation Systems designs and builds audio, video and lighting systems for virtually any place where people make presentations or perform. But A/V equipment ain’t all this company is great at.  Read more…

Want more?  Check out the full list to date!

P.S. Are you passionate about Savannah?  Feel like you’re biz belongs in our growing list of cool Savannah companies?  While we regretfully can’t profile everyone (it’s ’spensive, y’all),  we do about 6 of these every year, so email Fitz (fitzhaile AT thecreativecoast DOT org) if you’d like to be considered for next year!

The true test in any community is not how good a leader it has, how many companies set up shop, how well traffic flows or how safe grandma feels outside after dark.  While all those things are of great import, the true test of a community - the measure of what makes it a community - is how much it’s people care for one another and how they come together in times of need.

One year ago, two friends of the creative movement, creatives themselves, were assaulted and shot in the wee hours of the morning as they unloaded musical equipment after their band’s first gig.  One of them, Jason Statts, is still fighting to normalize a life altered, having suffered a serious spinal cord injury from the gunshot.

Before the incident, Jason worked as a talented musician and great visual artist.  He is a part of our creative economy and through his talents and interests - as well as his generosity, character and coolness as a person - has enriched this community.  There is no better evidence of that than the outpouring of support from friends, neighbor, colleagues and even strangers in the wake of the attack.

We spend alot of time as Savannahians patting ourselves on the back.  We feel so fortunate to live, work and play in such a fantastic city.  It’s hard not to gloat sometimes!  We have it made… but we aren’t immune to some of the harsher realities of life.  But it is the most difficult times that force us to ask ourselves: What are we made of?  What is the fabric of Savannah?

One year later, myself and a whole host of volunteers, vendors, donors, promoters and sponsors have pulled together to present “For the Benefit of Statts” on Friday, June 12 at Savannah Station.  It is more than an event; It is a community’s response to a friend in need.   The entirety of the event is built on donations and volunteer man hours.  And it to me it represents everything that is good in this town, including a heavy streak creativity and a strong sense of community.

To be sure, Jason Statts and his wife still carry a tremendous burden for a young, talented and vibrant couple. “For the Benefit of Statts” will once again bring our community together in gratitude and generosity to help Jason and Lyra Statts with the considerable financial challenges they will continue to face for the
foreseeable future.

On top of that, it will be one helluva party.

Eventgoers will be privy to complimentary wine and Moon River beer (cash bar also available), free eats/treats from many of Savannah’s finest eateries (ala Taste of Savannah), live music from (not one, not two, not three, but…) FOUR local music acts, and (if that weren’t enough) access to a raffle, live auction and silent auction featuring over 100 donated items from the best artists around, as well as local businesses, retailers and organizations.

Doors open for auction preview at 4:30 p.m. and the event will begin at 6pm. Live entertainment includes the Joe Nelson Band, the Josh Maul Blues Band, The 8-Tracks and DJ Emkay (that’s artist Marcus Kenney, people). Tickets are on sale for $25 in advance at the following downtown locations: Arcanum, Primary Art Supply , The Jinx (cash only).  Tickets will be $30 at the door the night of the benefit.  More information can be found at www.stattsbenefit.com.

In general, we believe in the simple power of community, “community” as a verb.  We encourage you to send Jason your positive energy and well-wishes as he continues to heal.  Be there on June 12.

What: “For the Benefit of Statts”

When: Friday, June 12, auction preview at 4:30 pm, event begins at 6:00 pm

Where: Savannah Station (map)

The world will be watching Savannah once again.  This time it’s because of BLUE - and ocean film festival featuring the greatest collection of ocean films and filmmakers - that will take place here June 10 - 14. The event will screen over 50 finalist films and host a capstone industry awards competition.  The event has garnered support of Disney, who will open the inaugural BLUE Ocean Film Festival with a screening of its first theatrical release, EARTH, produced by Disneynature, which set box office records for a documentary when it opened on Earth Day, 2009.  Overall, the festival promises to gather paramount ocean filmmakers, broadcasters and conservation leaders from around the world.

The local advisory board includes some of our favoritist people: Jim & Mari Carswell, Stephen Hooten, Stratton Leopold, Debbie Kinder, Gail Krueger, Kathryn Levitt, Howard Morrison, Kevin McCarey, Katherine Oxnard, George Sedberry and Zelda Tenenbaum.  Mari Carswell, Leopold, McCarey, Krueger and Kinder all sit on the global advisory council, along with other noteworthy names in film and ocean stewardship.  Among them, Jean-Michel Cousteau, son of legendary ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau, Leon Panetta, Chair of the Joint Ocean Commission and current director of the Central Intelligence Agency, and Dr. Sylvia Earle, widely recognized as one of the world’s most influential ambassadors for the oceans and winner of the prestigious 2009 TED award. (Full global advisory council list.)

BLUE was the brainchild of locals Debbie Kinder and Mari Carswell, who are featured in this issue of The South Magazine, along with Fabien and Celine Cousteau, children of Jean-Michel who will also attend the festival in Savannah.

An international celebration of the world’s oceans is landing in the Creative Coast, and conservation is at center stage… Yet what is now a global event began with a simple lunch between three people: a legendary filmmaker, his wife and a woman with an inkling of an idea for a film festival like no other.

Four years later, Debbie Kinder—the woman with the idea—still looks back on that meeting with a little smile and a lot of gratitude. “There were times when I thought, ‘Am I crazy?’ But all along I knew we could do it,” she says with a shrug.  Her business partner, Savannahian Mari Carswell, a documentary filmmaker, sits next to her. Gesturing towards her friend and co-worker, Carswell confesses, “She’s the visionary. I’m the one that makes things happen.”

In truth, both women will readily admit that the BLUE Ocean Film Festival is the result of countless hours of planning, sacrificing and persuading by both of them, in addition to the devotion of sponsors willing to take a chance on a first-time event. BLUE began with that lunch meeting four years ago. Today, it boasts a lineup of more than 50 of the world’s best ocean films, an industry competition and workshops with some of the planet’s leading documentary producers… The heart of BLUE may be its two founders, Kinder and Carswell, but the festival’s soul resides with the films themselves.

Spanning five days, BLUE Ocean Festival will bring a slew of films, exhibits and speakers to Savannah, so be sure to purchase your community passes soon, as space is limited.  Passes range from $85 - $250 and can be purchased at the SCAD Box Office Website.  A number of events are also free and open to the public (full schedule).

Devoted blog readers, you remember Ms. Fu and Geomagic from our February post on the Convergence Conference that took place here in Savannah.  (Yes, that would be the one where I invoked scenes from Total Recall to explain the true technological brilliance of Geomagic.)  To jog your memory, Geomagic is a worldwide software and services company specializing in digital shape sampling and processing (DSSP),  which entails scanning an object and then rendering it on a computer screen in full three-dimensional fidelity for manufacturing, testing, and inspection purposes. Yes, wicked cool.

And Geomagic’s fearless leader, Ms. Fu, is none other than Inc. Magazine’s 2005 Entrepreneur of the Year for her vision as a co-founder of the company who has instrumentally led its growth from a start-up to the worldwide leader in DSSP industry.  Not to mention that she’s credited with initiating and managing the software that lead to Netscape and Internet Explorer.

Not only has her technological success and entrepreneurial prowess set her apart from the field, but her brilliance in business has emerged from the unlikely story of imprisonment, torture and desperate hopelessness.  If you ever needed a reminder of the strength of the human spirit, please read Inc.’s article on Ping Fu.  In it, you’ll find the following testaments to the woman’s character and dedication:

“I really believe that this technology is important,” Ping continues. “We are just on the edge of it now. I hoped that mass acceptance would have come already, but it takes time. I can honestly say that if in five years Geomagic is a highly profitable company, but the DSSP revolution has not arrived, then I would not consider myself a success. By the same token, if we sold the company to a buyer who understands our vision, and in five years the revolution takes place but Geomagic’s contribution is forgotten, I would consider my work accomplished. I am not interested in wealth. I want to produce something of value.”

Among her other accolades, Fu was names Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year for the Carolinas, worldwide “Fast 50″ executive by Fast Company magazine, Entrebizneur of the Year by Business Leader magazine, and Triangle Business Journal’s Women in Business, Class of 2005.

Thanks to SEDA for bringing such a dynamic speaker to Savannah.  We’ll see you all there!

What: 5th Annual SEDA Luncheon

When: Thursday, May 28 at 11:30 am

Where: Savannah International Trace and Conference Center, Hutchinson Island (map)

Why:  Ping Fu (’nuff said)

Reserve your seats by going to www.seda.org or calling Lawrence Green at 912.447.9707.